One of the worst videogame to movie adaptations of all time has to be Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li. Everything, from start to finish, is beyond redemption. Most of the characters are barely recognizable from their videogame counter-part, save for their names. One exclusion to this rule was Vega, who died a horrible and undignified death after a one second fight and loads of build-up. The story was bland and uninteresting. The fights were short and very badly edited. And lastly, it was just so boring.
As far as fighting game adaptations go, this movie failed miserably. Other movies like the original Street Fighter movie and Dead or Alive are bad as well, but they are so bad they turn around and become good again.
Ranking highest in these adaptations are movies like Mortal Kombat that take the story, the concept and the characters and just run with it. This is where Tekken ranks for me.
Tekken is situated in a world where corporations have taken over everything. Governments are a thing of the passed, replaced by chairmen and CEO’s. Controlling North America is the Tekken Corporation, seated at the hearth of Tekken City. Right outside of Tekken City is the Tekken City slums, better known as The Anvil. The story of Tekken revolves around a tournament created by the owners of the Tekken Corporation in order to put the masses at ease. In short, a way of control. The Tekken tournament is called The Iron Fist Tournament and it is fought by Tekken “employees” and one man from the outside, the people’s choice. Of course, one has to beat a Tekken approved fighter in order to become the people’s choice, and that is nigh impossible.
If you think I’m writing Tekken a lot, then just wait how much you hear and see it in the movie.
ANYWAYS, on the human side of things, the story is centered around our main character, Jin Kazama. Jin lives in The Anvil with his mother and is a street fighter and a contraband runner. Because of this, Jin is targeted by Tekken’s hunt for insurgents. As it would be, Jin was away from home when the Tekken police force, the Jackhammer’s, came to arrest him, only finding his mother. An order came and his house was blown up, alongside his mother and the Jacks that were inside. And he was there to witness it. Enraged, Jin swore to fight in the tournament, become the champion and kill the man behind Tekken, Heihachi Mishima.
As far as the setting goes, it’s actually pretty cool. Tekken City and The Anvil are pretty much what we have seen in a few other dystopian futures, but it’s actually quite alright as it never feels like a set. Except for the ring, but that’s the whole point of that place, I guess. As far as believability goes, people just need to get over themselves. It’s a movie, fiction, not real. There’s nothing wrong with corporations taking over the world as a story.
On the story end however, things are … well … predictable. You pretty much know everything that is going to happen because this movie has cliché written all over it. From beginning to end, if you except it to happen then it will most likely happen.
Take for instance the death of his mother. There was no way in hell that she wasn’t going to die. She was loving, caring, his martial arts mentor and was telling him not to get involved with Tekken at all. All she needed was a red shirt.
But, for all its flaws, the story is entertaining. Even though it is what it is, the story is fun to follow. It’s fast and entertaining, what more do you need for a popcorn movie?
Let’s talk about some of the fighters now. One thing I can not forgive this movie for is only giving Paul a passing mention and not including King.
Many of the personalities are just plain stock. They really have very little personality other than being what they are, paid for fighters that are either manly men, feminine women or wise retirees. And still that’s not a problem in the slightest, as most of these characters are well portrayed by their actors or actresses. Not Oscar worthy material, but sufficient. Even if some characters aren’t fleshed out at all or don’t get a lot of screen time.
One thing the movie did get right were their outfits. Jin looked like Jin, Yoshimitsu looked like Yoshimitsu, Nina looked like Nina, Eddie looked like Eddie. It was great to see them all there, fully garbed and kicking ass. I particularly enjoyed Eddie’s fight, as Capoeira is a beautiful sport to watch. And I’m betting a lot of you are happy to know that Eddie, that cheating bastard, gets knocked on his ass.
Not one of the fights looks like they do in, let’s say Highlander, where they try to put in the actor sometimes and then replace him with a more skilled fighter in shots that don’t show his face. Like Christopher Lambert in Highlander Endgame versus Adrian Paul. And if they did, it’s barely noticeable.
In the end, the characters and the performances by their actors are just perfect. Nobody stands out as being underdeveloped or overdeveloped, which is a sign of brilliantly done mediocre writing. Just what this movie needed, if you ask me. Everything is geared to get you from fight A to fight B and it’s glorious.
Speaking of actors, there are two familiar faces in the bunch. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa played Heihachi. You might remember him from the Mortal Kombat movie. I’ll give you a hint: YOUR SOULLL IS MIINNEEEEEE *overacts like a maniac*.
Funny though, Shang-Tsung runs to Tekken and Liu Kang runs to Street Fighter.
Anyways, Tagaki is actually very controlled in his performance this time and delivers a great performance. Unfortunately he is made to look like Heihachi from the games. With that ridiculous hairdo and all … I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw him.
Another familiar face is Gary Daniels, from old school action movie fame. He plays the not developed character of Brian Fury, cyborgs extraordinaire and impossible fighter to beat of the day.
Interesting to note is that Jon Foo, who played Jin, starred as Ryu in Street Fighter: Legacy, a short fan film. So that makes one MK going SF, one MK going Tekken and one SF going Tekken. KK.
Right, so music and looks are next, right? Well, nothing really notable here. The looks are passable, and as I said, things don’t look overly set like. The music isn’t half that bad either, usually consisting out of the usual barrage of fast paced songs for an action packed thrill ride!
As I said in the beginning, Tekken ranks up there with Mortal Kombat. It’s certainly not a perfect adaptation or a perfect movie. It has its flaws. But it’s easy to look passed them and see just how fun and entertaining it can be. Don’t skip out on it because you listen to those wannabe reviewers on their shitty blogs that think they know what they are talking about. Wait …
7/10
As far as fighting game adaptations go, this movie failed miserably. Other movies like the original Street Fighter movie and Dead or Alive are bad as well, but they are so bad they turn around and become good again.
Ranking highest in these adaptations are movies like Mortal Kombat that take the story, the concept and the characters and just run with it. This is where Tekken ranks for me.
Tekken is situated in a world where corporations have taken over everything. Governments are a thing of the passed, replaced by chairmen and CEO’s. Controlling North America is the Tekken Corporation, seated at the hearth of Tekken City. Right outside of Tekken City is the Tekken City slums, better known as The Anvil. The story of Tekken revolves around a tournament created by the owners of the Tekken Corporation in order to put the masses at ease. In short, a way of control. The Tekken tournament is called The Iron Fist Tournament and it is fought by Tekken “employees” and one man from the outside, the people’s choice. Of course, one has to beat a Tekken approved fighter in order to become the people’s choice, and that is nigh impossible.
If you think I’m writing Tekken a lot, then just wait how much you hear and see it in the movie.
ANYWAYS, on the human side of things, the story is centered around our main character, Jin Kazama. Jin lives in The Anvil with his mother and is a street fighter and a contraband runner. Because of this, Jin is targeted by Tekken’s hunt for insurgents. As it would be, Jin was away from home when the Tekken police force, the Jackhammer’s, came to arrest him, only finding his mother. An order came and his house was blown up, alongside his mother and the Jacks that were inside. And he was there to witness it. Enraged, Jin swore to fight in the tournament, become the champion and kill the man behind Tekken, Heihachi Mishima.
As far as the setting goes, it’s actually pretty cool. Tekken City and The Anvil are pretty much what we have seen in a few other dystopian futures, but it’s actually quite alright as it never feels like a set. Except for the ring, but that’s the whole point of that place, I guess. As far as believability goes, people just need to get over themselves. It’s a movie, fiction, not real. There’s nothing wrong with corporations taking over the world as a story.
On the story end however, things are … well … predictable. You pretty much know everything that is going to happen because this movie has cliché written all over it. From beginning to end, if you except it to happen then it will most likely happen.
Take for instance the death of his mother. There was no way in hell that she wasn’t going to die. She was loving, caring, his martial arts mentor and was telling him not to get involved with Tekken at all. All she needed was a red shirt.
But, for all its flaws, the story is entertaining. Even though it is what it is, the story is fun to follow. It’s fast and entertaining, what more do you need for a popcorn movie?
Let’s talk about some of the fighters now. One thing I can not forgive this movie for is only giving Paul a passing mention and not including King.
Many of the personalities are just plain stock. They really have very little personality other than being what they are, paid for fighters that are either manly men, feminine women or wise retirees. And still that’s not a problem in the slightest, as most of these characters are well portrayed by their actors or actresses. Not Oscar worthy material, but sufficient. Even if some characters aren’t fleshed out at all or don’t get a lot of screen time.
One thing the movie did get right were their outfits. Jin looked like Jin, Yoshimitsu looked like Yoshimitsu, Nina looked like Nina, Eddie looked like Eddie. It was great to see them all there, fully garbed and kicking ass. I particularly enjoyed Eddie’s fight, as Capoeira is a beautiful sport to watch. And I’m betting a lot of you are happy to know that Eddie, that cheating bastard, gets knocked on his ass.
Not one of the fights looks like they do in, let’s say Highlander, where they try to put in the actor sometimes and then replace him with a more skilled fighter in shots that don’t show his face. Like Christopher Lambert in Highlander Endgame versus Adrian Paul. And if they did, it’s barely noticeable.
In the end, the characters and the performances by their actors are just perfect. Nobody stands out as being underdeveloped or overdeveloped, which is a sign of brilliantly done mediocre writing. Just what this movie needed, if you ask me. Everything is geared to get you from fight A to fight B and it’s glorious.
Speaking of actors, there are two familiar faces in the bunch. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa played Heihachi. You might remember him from the Mortal Kombat movie. I’ll give you a hint: YOUR SOULLL IS MIINNEEEEEE *overacts like a maniac*.
Funny though, Shang-Tsung runs to Tekken and Liu Kang runs to Street Fighter.
Anyways, Tagaki is actually very controlled in his performance this time and delivers a great performance. Unfortunately he is made to look like Heihachi from the games. With that ridiculous hairdo and all … I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw him.
Another familiar face is Gary Daniels, from old school action movie fame. He plays the not developed character of Brian Fury, cyborgs extraordinaire and impossible fighter to beat of the day.
Interesting to note is that Jon Foo, who played Jin, starred as Ryu in Street Fighter: Legacy, a short fan film. So that makes one MK going SF, one MK going Tekken and one SF going Tekken. KK.
Right, so music and looks are next, right? Well, nothing really notable here. The looks are passable, and as I said, things don’t look overly set like. The music isn’t half that bad either, usually consisting out of the usual barrage of fast paced songs for an action packed thrill ride!
As I said in the beginning, Tekken ranks up there with Mortal Kombat. It’s certainly not a perfect adaptation or a perfect movie. It has its flaws. But it’s easy to look passed them and see just how fun and entertaining it can be. Don’t skip out on it because you listen to those wannabe reviewers on their shitty blogs that think they know what they are talking about. Wait …
7/10
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